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Ultrafast and Energy-Efficient Quenching of Spin Order: Antiferromagnetism Beats Ferromagnetism

Nele Thielemann-Kühn, Daniel Schick, Niko Pontius, Christoph Trabant, Rolf Mitzner, Karsten Holldack, Hartmut Zabel, Alexander Föhlisch, and Christian Schüßler-Langeheine
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 197202 – Published 6 November 2017
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Abstract

By comparing femtosecond laser pulse induced ferro- and antiferromagnetic dynamics in one and the same material—metallic dysprosium—we show both to behave fundamentally different. Antiferromagnetic order is considerably faster and much more efficiently reduced by optical excitation than its ferromagnetic counterpart. We assign the fast and extremely efficient process in the antiferromagnet to an interatomic transfer of angular momentum within the spin system. Our findings imply that this angular momentum transfer channel is effective in other magnetic metals with nonparallel spin alignment. They also point out a possible route towards energy-efficient spin manipulation for magnetic devices.

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  • Received 15 March 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.197202

© 2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

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Quick Changes in Magnetic Materials

Published 6 November 2017

A class of magnetic materials can be reordered at the nanoscale more rapidly than the type usually found in magnetic hard drives, offering a possible route to faster memory devices.

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Authors & Affiliations

Nele Thielemann-Kühn1,2,*, Daniel Schick1, Niko Pontius1, Christoph Trabant1,2,3, Rolf Mitzner1, Karsten Holldack1, Hartmut Zabel4, Alexander Föhlisch1,2, and Christian Schüßler-Langeheine1

  • 1Institut für Methoden und Instrumentierung der Forschung mit Synchrotronstrahlung, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Straße 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
  • 2Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
  • 3II. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Straße 77, 50937 Köln, Germany
  • 4Institut für Physik, Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz, Germany

  • *Present address: Fachbereich Physik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, 14195 Berlin, Germany. nele.thielemann@helmholtz-berlin.de

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Issue

Vol. 119, Iss. 19 — 10 November 2017

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